Traveling With Cloth Diapers

July 22, 2011. Bill Szydlowski

I want to give you some experienced tips about traveling with a baby who uses cloth diapers. I don’t stick to any one specific method. I base my diapering decisions on different factors, and I suggest you do the same.

You need to assess:

How long is the car (bus, train, plane) trip?
Will you have easy access to a washer/dryer?
How long will you be away? A few days? A week?
Traveling by car, bus, train or plane?

Long Car Rides

If the car ride is going to be really long, I sometimes just relent and use disposables. I have to worry less about leaks, and I can usually get away with only using one or two, even for a long 6-8 hour ride. Although our best prefold cloth diapers are really absorbent, there are some trips where I prefer to use just a few disposables and make life easy.

If using cloth diapers, just make sure you have a waterproof cover. I also recommend using a doubler for extra absorbency. Think about using an extra liner too, which will wick pee away, leaving your baby feeling more dry for longer.

Washer/Dryer

If you will have access to a washer and dryer throughout your trip/vacation, then by all means continue to cloth diaper. There are, however, some times when using disposables is the only option, other than hand-washing your cloth diapers, like if there is no washer/dryer nearby. Why waste time, during a vacation, hanging out at the laundromat washing diapers?! It might also be easier to leave the cloth diaper detergent at home this time around.

How Long Is The Vacation?

If the trip is more than a couple of days, and you have access to a washer/dryer, even if a bit out of the way, then I would continue to use cloth diapers. If you can get through 2 days without washing, then wash, and get through another 2 days, it may be feasible to continue cloth during your trip.

Mode Of Travel:

I break mode of travel down like this:

Car: cloth diapers are more than doable, especially if making several stops. Most rest stops have changing tables too.
Bus: Forget it. Where are you changing your baby? Definitely not in the bathroom!
Train: Doable, depending on the train size and style.
Plane: I wouldn’t recommend it. On a plane, you don’t want to be subjecting everyone to the potential mess of frequent diaper changes. That’s why I suggest keeping it simple on the plane, and using disposables.

Updated July 22, 2011. Published May 29, 2011. Bill Szydlowski